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뉴욕 그랜드 센트럴 터미널


뉴욕에 있는 한 유명한 빌딩이 설립 100주년을 맞았다. 바로 그랜드 센트럴 터미널이다. 이 곳은 현재 세계에서 6번째로 방문객이 많은 곳이며 1913년에 처음 문을 열었다. 매일 75만명의 사람들이 이 곳을 통과한다. 단순히 관광이나 쇼핑을 위하여 오는 사람도 있지만 대부분의 사람들은 역으로 드나드는 기차를 타기 위해 온다. 67개의 기차 트랙이 있는데 모두 지하에 있다.

A famous building in New York City is turning 100 years old this month. A year-long celebration is planned for Grand Central Terminal, which is usually called Grand Central station. Christopher Cruise tells us more about the sixth most-visited place in the world.

The huge building has not changed much since it opened in February, 1913. About 750,000 people pass through Grand Central every day. Some just come to look at it, others to visit the stores. But most are there to catch the trains that enter and leave from the station. It is the largest train station in the world. There are 67 train tracks, all of them underground.

The main part of the building has large, arched windows, a jeweled four-sided clock and ticket windows. Grand Central has been seen in many movies through the years. Dan Brucker is with the New York Transit Authority, which operates the station.

“Grand Central is the kind of temple, cathedral, that testifies to the magnificence of rail transportation, the kind that God would have built if he’d had the money.”

Dan Brucker has worked for the transit authority at Grand Central for 30 years. In all those years, he has not lost his interest in the building.

“This is the beginning of 20th century architecture. And as people come through this terminal, they don’t even realize that the magnificent celestial ceiling above them, the very roof of heaven, is exactly wrong, is exactly opposite. It’s a mirror image.”

Justin Ferate, a historian, has been giving tours of Grand Central Station for 30 years. He says the station was designed to make travel a pleasure.

“You know that you’re a traveler, you’re going off on a great adventure, you’re going to follow your stars and find your dream. You’re also going to find your train where it’s supposed to be -- which is one of the brilliant parts of the design of the building.”

Justin Ferate likes to show how the building was designed for large numbers of people. “Why people don't run into each other in Grand Central is simple: each block of stone in Grand Central is the length of your leg. Each block of stone in Grand Central is the length of your arm. Each block of stone is a different color, so it’s a checkerboard, based on you.”

A ten-year-long fight against plans to build a huge office building over Grand Central in 1968 helped create the modern preservation movement. Now, no one would think of changing the beauty of the station.

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